By Max Rekela Jasper on March 21st, 2025

There is no single person in this world who has the same experience of pain. Some have more pain than others, and some have less, yet they respond to that pain as if they’ve just lost everything in the world. What writer/director Jesse Eisenberg brilliantly depicts in his buddy road dramedy A Real Pain is how different people react to pain in their personal lives, while on a Holocaust tour. Each character involved in the tour is in some sort of pain, yet they choose to hide it. Well, each character except for the eccentric slacker Benji (Kieran Culkin), a hurt soul who uses his emotions to guide the tour in directions nobody on the tour expected.

I’ll admit that some of the scenes with Benji criticizing the tour were “a real pain” to watch, but I believe that was the intent. When somebody is in “a real pain,” they often lash out at things that don’t need to be lashed out at, as they view things differently. I can remember a few specific instances in my life where, like Benji, I lashed out at things that I probably shouldn’t have. I was extremely emotional; taking my pain out on things that I shouldn’t have.

While I’m on the topic, I’d like to take a deep dive into Benji’s complicated character. He’s an extroverted slacker. Or is he? I’d make the argument that Benji is an introvert at heart, and is only comfortable being outgoing and funny around people he loves (like David (Jesse Eisenberg), for instance), which is why he acts extroverted. Similarly to the pain aspect, that’s a characteristic of Benji that I see in myself, as, when I’m around people I love, I feel more comfortable being outgoing; whereas, if I’m around people I’m not too familiar with, then I tend to follow the status quo, like David. My actions around others I am comfortable with have had them mistake me for an extrovert when in reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, it’s fun for me to perform and be outgoing, but I prefer to be alone or with a small number of people at a time. Being around big groups exhausts me socially. Anyway, Benji uses David’s presence in the group to get the group comfortable with one another, but he does have some moments where he is unable to hide his pain, making things extremely uncomfortable for the group. Those moments make me wonder if Eisenberg wrote the character of Benji as a reflection of the person he feels like he should be, or if he based Benji on somebody else. Regardless, Benji was a great character, and Culkin deserved that Best Supporting Actor nomination.

By far my favorite moment in the film is when David and Benji get off the train and realize that they got off too late. At first, David panics, but then Benji tells David that he knew that the group was getting off at that stop and that he didn’t want to wake David up, because David’s sleeping reminded him of old times they had together. David is understandably upset at this; however, his frustration quickly turns to joy, as Benji leads him onto the next train, avoiding paying for a ticket. I loved that entire sequence for two reasons. The first being that I had a similar experience during my freshman year of college, where I accidentally fell asleep in my dorm room hours before my cross country team’s “Christmas Night Run,” and my roommate at the time, didn’t wake me up, but went to the run himself. Thankfully, I was able to catch up to the team about a mile into the run, but, like David, I was annoyed that I had not woken up before the event. The second reason I love this moment is because it is one of the few moments in the film that David and Benji truly feel alive together, both as they used to when they were young. Seeing a careless Benji sneak a nervous David into the first-class section of the train brought immense joy to my heart.

My only real gripe with A Real Pain is that it can be slow at times. It is a film that requires patience from its viewers, so if you’re a viewer who gets frustrated with characters acting like idiots, then this isn’t the film for you.

Despite that, I believe Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain to be a fantastic film. With excellent performances, beautiful cinematography, and a somber, yet wholesome narrative, it is a film that I think will become a cult classic as time goes by. I rate A Real Pain four out of five stars.